How To Beat Economic Blues (or just make them a little less blue)

Updated on December 7, 2009

Yes you are blue, down in the dumps, sad, etc. You have to pay bills, pay off loans, you might even be in debt! I'm not going give you the answer to all your financial problems (I'm not Santa or God) But I can make it a little better for you and give you some tips everyone should know about how they spend, save and earn!

For those who: Hate overdraft fees!

I know I defiantly fit in this category. Anyone who screamed yes in agreement has gone to taco bell bought one of those burritos for a dollar, just to find out later. Your bank over drafted you ten. (Or maybe that’s just me) All I know is this happens a lot and if your not smart you could end up with over 100 dollars in over drafts! What a waste.

In every book of cheeks there is a space in the back where you write down how much you've spent. Writing this information down might save you from over drafting

You should always know how much money is in your checking and savings! Sense most debit cards take money out of your checking make sure you always have at least 250 dollars in there.

There should be a number on the back of your card. Its there for you to use! Call it! You can check your balance before using your card.

Budget Budget Budget!

I can't make this point clear enough. A budget is one of the most important things in the financial world!

First of all you if you have word or any program that can run a spreadsheet start a "Budget Program" For this Program you should first see what you've spent in the last couple of months.

Microsoft Works or Word users: The easiest way to do this is to open up a template. I was completely lost when I first tried this out and when I found templates it was like Somebody throwing a life saver out to you when your drowning. When you open the template you get to a spread sheet. You enter your information in the place of the example text. And then you click on the graph button.

Then you should make another spreadsheet and graph and put what you would like your expenses to look like. Being organized like this can can stop you

After that you can open up a blank document and plan out your expenses and save a little money for random fees (Extra charges and overdrafts just in case you skipped the first part of my article)

Use the Internet to Your advantage.

Always look for deals. Even if your rich because money can always run out and life happens. There are many resources on the Internet that can help you save bucks!

Coupon Craze: This is a website with coupons for a ton of different things! I was just on there and I saw a coupon for Calvin Klein jeans. 25% off. How the site works is it tells you wish websites and stores are having deals, then it links you to these places. http://www.couponcraze.com/

I guess there are online saving sites. These sites let you name your savings (For example: Vacation Savings, new car savings) Then you set it up so it takes money from your account. It sounds great but you should always research these resources before you use them

Always watch out for Internet scams!!

Don't Throw that Penny in the Garbage!

People are so quick to get read of there loose change. I will admit that I have been known to just throw my chains on the ground and say "whatever its just a penny" Well I went to one of my friends houses and she asked me to come with her to the bank to cash in her coins. She brought out about 4 heavy bags of pennies and nickels (I know they were heavy because she had me carry a bag)

She asked me "How much money do you think I'm going get?"

I said "$10" She laughed and said "I'm thinking $30" Well it came out to about 35 dollars. See what happens when your smart with saving. She turned her spare change into 35 dollars cash.

Save every penny!

The key to less stress about money is saving,budgeting, and being smart about your money!

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Comments 7 comments

O.k. I'm guilty, I tend not to care what happens to pennies, but this is a good lesson that they do add up as well! Thanks for sharing...

prospectboy 4 years ago from Texas

Nice advice and information. I'm not a coupon person, but I do save my spare change. Last year I saved around 50 dollars worth of nickels in a jar. I ended up giving them to my sister to help get her laptop fixed, but they came in handy. Since then I'm back to saving them again. I've yet to count how much I have as yet, but they're adding up. Great hub, very informative. Voted up and shared on both Twitter and Facebook.

Bredavies 4 years ago Author

Thank you very much. It was also very sweet of you to help your sister.

Sethughes 4 years ago

Great hub. Very useful information. I love anything that offers help with "economic blues" and this was a really good one.

Bredavies 4 years ago Author

Thank you. :)

cheetah786 4 years ago

good tips.. budgeting is the base of planning the future.. budgeting carelessly means you are ruining future..